Floating

When floating, one can see the world's reflection, but don't forget to look beneath the surface for life.

The ten year old winced as the door slammed.

He was here.

She knew what was coming. She sighed and wandered over. Today was the day. Today she would ask.

He floated in. Clasping her hands in front of her, she kept her head slightly bowed. She knew he had a job for her. The last mission was a show pf power at some of the further out of the way villages. She had growled to her self at the end of that one. Her element was water. This was not conducive to starting a village wide fire.

She hoped that this show of strength wouldn't be terribly difficult. She had been feeling under the weather.

"Sir?" He looked at her, derision evident. He tossed a piece of paper at her.

"Be done tonight." She bowed her head. he turned to leave, but her voice stopped him.

"Sir?" The Mizukage stopped, but didn't turn. "Sir, I was wondering. Could you please tell me about my parents?" She hadn't asked him before, but no one else knew. He had simply showed up with her in tow when she was three. She didn't remember anything earlier, and no one else knew.

"Excuse me?" His silky voice was a warning but she persisted.

"Who are my parents?" He turned and looked at the girl.

"Do not concern yourself with them. Do your job." She stepped forward, determined of her ten years.

"Please sir, what happened to my parents?" He turned to her, eyes narrowed.

"I believe I told you to not concern yourself. I will not tell you again. Complete your mission." The 'or else' went unsaid. She stuck out her chin in a stubborn gesture.

"Please sir, who are my parents?" He stalked forward a step. His eyes were slits of anger.

"Your parents were weak, pathetic fools. They requested that I raise you instead of them. They didn't survive the war. I took you in as a gesture of faith, but you are becoming troublesome." She bowed her head in shame, but looked up at his next statement. "Tonight, you will find your own apartment. And you had better complete your assignment first." With a swish of his robes he stalked out of the bare room.

She felt a sense of dread as he left. As if she had just signed her ticket to hell.

000

Yuuki gasped as she sprang up in bed. The dream had been even more vivid then usual. It was that memory. The last time she had lived with anyone. The last time He had protected her.

Sakura was standing next to her. She smiled as she placed a hand on the jinchuuriki's shoulder. She caught the flinch as she explained that Yuuki had been out for nearly three days. Yuuki's eyes were wide as Sakura declared her in good health, but exhausted meaning no strain for a few days.

Sakura had turned, frowning when an indignant squawk from the other side of the room drew their attention. Hinata was frowning grumpily, arms crossed over her chest. Apparently she had been given similar instructions with one large exception. She was confined to her bed until tomorrow. Yuuki chuckled at Sakura's exasperated explanation that this is what happened when one moved an ocean of water before one is ready.

Yuuki noticed that the nurse had closed the door before Sakura turned to Hinata in irritation.

"It would have been nice to know I was working with a jinchuuriki, by the way." Her glare was directed at both of them. Hinata had straightened, demanded to know how she could tell? Sakura rolled here eyes. "The sheer amount of chakra you used overwhelmed the seal you had over the bijuu seal that prevented me from picking it up on any medical scans. Don't worry I id't let anyone else run a scan on you." Hinata nodded, looking mollified that the winds had been taken out of her sails. Yuuki's timid question distracted the two friends from their emotional interaction.

"How many know?" Sakura turned to her to snap, what Yuuki wasn't sure, when she saw Yuuki's face. Something must had registered just how terrified Yuuki was at this answer. Yuuki sighed in relief when Sakura told her very few.

"Most of the shinobi were preoccupied, the villagers wouldn't recognize the chakra even if they could sense it, and those who weren't preoccupied were too young to notice. The shinobi used to working with bijuu probably did." Yuuki didn't look much happier with that bit of information. Hinata's words helped little.

"Our friends probably picked it out, as well as our teachers. Any anbu in the area probably picked it out. Sakura and Neji got to us as we lost consciousness and we were spirited away before people could identify who the jinchuuriki were. As far as most of that ones who noticed are concerned, they have another jinchuuriki somewhere in the village." Tsunade grunted in affirmation as she entered the room.

"Agreed, I"ve fended off many question, but your actual identity is still hidden Yuuki." Hinata ducked her head as her Hokage entered. Tsunade didn't know she was also a jinchuuriki yet. Unless Sakura had told her. She hoped not, noting in her mind to have a talk with Sakura about this soon. "Perhaps now would be good to formally introduce yourself to me."

For the last month, since Yuuki had arrived, Tsunade had been completely out of touch with most of her shinobi due to some sort of secret mission with the anbu and jounin. They didn't know, and for the moment were happy not knowing. It meant that she hadn't met Yuuki more than a hi/bye fashion and hadn't met Ino's current project at all. She knew that Ten Ten had been training hard on something and Gai said that Lee was similarly under some heavy duty secret training, speaking mostly with his team and with Sakura. Shikamaru and Chouji were trying to help Ino, but they were reaching a dead end on things. Iruka had been working with Kiba and Shino, and was apparently going with Anko, when the poor girl was actually in the village. Luckily the missions were slowing done. All the chunin were hoping to see their senseis more.

"Forgive the tardiness of this introduction. I am Tsukina Yuuki, Jinchuuriki who carried Seiryuu, the four tailed dragon of the bijuu. I humbly thank you for your hospitality while I wait for Project Nine to commence." Her voice and diction were consistent with someone who had been raised in the politics of village leadership. Tsunade stored that feeling in the back of her mind as she bowed her head.

"On behalf of Konohagakura, I welcome you to our village with pleasure and hope your stay is a wonderful one. Please feel free to impose upon me any concerns or questions you have. Your host, Hyuuga-san, will be happy to make you comfortable." Yuuki nodded her head. Tsunade smiled slightly. "And thank you for your information regarding our favorite blonde goofball." Yuuki smiled slightly at this, exhaustion starting to set in again. Realizing this, Sakura stepped forward.

"Hinata-chan wants to sleep at home in her own bed, so how about you escort her home that way both of you can sleep." Yuuki nodded in agreement. Hinata was already getting up. Yuuki heaved a deep breath, knowing she would feel better once out of the hospital. Nothing against Sakura, but it gave her the shivers. Tsunade nodded to them.

"Sakura, once they are on their way come and find me. I would like to meet these friends of yours with Ino-chan." Sakura nodded as she focused on her patients.

"Neji-kun is here visiting Ten Ten's family, shall I retrieve him?" Hinata shook her head.

"Let him be, I'll stop by Shino's home on the way and ask him to stay until father returns tonight." That was a testament to the change in the family. Sakura couldn't help but make note that before Naruto, Hinata wouldn't have considered her father safe in this sense. In fact, Hinata had no one at home she looked to for safety back then. Neji and Hanabi hated her, the main branch was estranged from the rest of the family, and her father avoiding her when not outright degrading her. Now they shared a comraderie of a family. Sakura shook her head in amazement, thanking god for the changes in her friend's life.

She was about to go find Tsunade when Iruka and Kakashi burst in, asking for help.

000

Naruto could tell that everyone was excited. He had been told that this was an amazing celebration once a month. He had decided only a week after being in this village that the village celebrated everything, when they couldn't find something to celebrate, they celebrated the simplicity of the day. Every morning they awoke, ate breakfast. He and other students went to lessons while the adults had various other tasks before them. Lunch was usually eaten in the middle of whatever they were doing, dishes left til dinner. Then afternoon lessons or hunting or gathering. Dinner included cooking eating and cleaning mostly, all chakra exercises. Then they had a few hours of whatever was planned before the campfires were lit. Then the fires were lit and the celebrating would begin. There were songs, dances, music, stories, games, all sort things at different fires, depending on the night.

Once a month the village gathered around a campfire for celebrating love. Not family love, but the love and devotion between someone and their mate. They remembered the lovers not present and kissed the ones that were. He was actually told that a large portion of the village was probably concieved on one of these nights. He had blushed and told his cousin that he hadn't needed to know that.

Haruka was opening the singing tonight. She was supposed to do it last month but he and Haruka had been involved in a training exercise that had knocked them out for two days, missing the celebration completely. His cousin had described the night to him so he was looking forward to seeing it for himself. He had met most of his family now. His mother had been one of two girls and had been close to her six cousin and their kids. Kushina's brother had passed a year earlier, but his sons were really great. They all had pulled some great pranks.

He swallowed his lunch and waved to Takamaru as he flew by as he heard Shingo trying to sneak up on him for weapons training again.

000

Yuuki sighed as she waited for Hinata to finish talking with Shino's mother. They were picking up Shino, who wasn't at the academy today. Classes had continued with a twist. The student were learning the shinobi skills required to fix a building. Mui had held the building up long enough to retrieve Iruka uninjured, but the turbulance later caused the building to collapse. Since more then a quarter of the village needing rebuilding, there were no workers available for the academy. The gate on that side of the village had been completely destroyed and those neighborhoods had gotten hit the hardest. They had managed to save most of the villagers, but there were many missing or injured and they had already confirmed the death of a few. A few stragglers who had gotten swept away and survived were wandering back. For a village of about 30,000 that was better then expected.

She thought back to her dream this morning. It had been a while since she recalled that day, the day that everything had changed. That mission had indeed been awful. She had to assasinate every person in a building at midnight. This wasn't the first assasination, though most of them had been a specific person. This must be a meeting of some sort of group. She didn't know, but she would follow her orders. She had to follow Mizukage's orders.

She hadn't. She had killed the first person she had found upon entering the house. He was a farmer she thought. She heard three people hiding in the other room and went to finish the job and get home to grovel. Opening the door, she had froze. There were three people all right. A woman and two children, barely 4 or 5 years old. The children were slightly tearing but the woman, who was shielding them as best she could, looked at Yuuki in tears. Angry tears.

Yuuki could remember the rage, the condemnation in the woman's voice. She fairly spat at the young girl. Yuuki remembered what she called her. Pathetic demon. The woman just stared at her with her hard eyes, holding her children behind her. The little boy wrestled to get out of her grip, but was held tight. Yuuki had looked at them in silence. As if debating how to end their life, but in actuallity, there was little running through her head.

She had been sent to kill children. She had noticed that this was a home, not a business and there was no other people in the building. She had performed many tasks for the Mizukage, most she wasn't proud of, but she had yet to stain her hands with the blood of children. She had watched parents with their kids, wondering if her parents had been similar. She would probably never know after Mizukage's response to her inquiry earlier. She had avoided children in her violence.

Just looking at them, her mind had froze. She couldn't afford to fail in her mission. The woman finally stopped and looked at the young girl who had killed her husband. Yuuki hadn't known what to do. When the woman asked what she was waiting for, she truly couldn't answer, because she herself didn't know. When the woman asked if she was alright, she tightened her grip on her knife, on the only constant in her life she depended on. The woman reached forward to take the knife, but Yuuki had stepped back, almost as if afraid what giving the knife to the woman would mean. In hindsight, Yuuki wondered if the woman would have killed her once she had gotten the knife. The boy had broke free of his mother and approached the frozen Yuuki.

Girl alright?

That question, with simple curiosity, had never been asked of Yuuki before. The woman eyes her and shuffled forward, daughter off to one sde, behind her. She started speaking about her children. Their names, their likes and dislikes. She was edging closer to the terrified youth. Yuuki had aften wondered later, if the woman had known she wasn't going to survive that evening. She was asking now if anyone had taken care of Yuuki. If she was alone, if she wanted a family. Yuuki had desparately wanted to scream yes, to grasp the woman's hand in hope, anything to leave the current life behind. She had actually reached out to the woman's hand when an arrow sprouted her chest. Yuuki had watched in stunned horror as she fell forward in slow motion.

Her children had rushed to her. She managed to look at her children and spoke of her love and their bravery. Yuuki hadn't been able to turn away, hearing words she had internally begged all the gods listening to hear from someone's lips to her. She turned to the window and saw and tail of the cloak of another assassin. She recognized him. She looked back at the family, dropping her knives in the process. The woman reached for her. She passed many things with that look, or Yuuki liked to think she had correctly understood the look. Requests to take care of her children, apologies for harsh words, sad acceptance of her fate. She only spoke one word as her hand fell and she died.

Aoi-chan

000

Iruka was walking through downtown gingerly. Sakura had told him he could leave the hospital, just no acrobatics. He was quite thankful for that. First of all, to get out of Sakura-chan's hair. The hospital had more overflow than it knew what to do with and Sakura and Ino were being run ragged. Miketsu, who was helping out as a nurse, had sat with him for a while talking about what little she knew about her sons. Iruka had had several pairs of brothers, but couldn't think of any lacking a mother and hadn't been a teacher as far back as she was talking. Still, it was nice to talk to her before he was given an okay to scat.

He had a plan he had been toying with for the last few days as he healed. He was lucky his ribs weren't broken, just cracked. He hadn't talked to Hinata about that rescue yet, but he planned to do that after she recovered from her exhaustion. At the moment he had another target.

He spotted his goal off to one side. He knew she was off by now and was probably relaxing a bit. He took a deep breath. Over the last two years Anko had pursued him on and off and he was starting to wonder what he thought of her. A few monthes ago she had gotten really busy and still stopped by every week or so and teased him. Her intentions had been light. At first he thought it was just the teasing she gave others. Kakashi had a similar method of screening those he interacted with, how they tolerated this behavior dictated how trustworthy the person was. Anko was a very teasing person when she liked or frequently dealt with the same person. He realized how much she might like him when he realized she was going out of her way to tease him.

The kiss here and brush there had turned into brief lunch meet or a walk home from work, she would ambush him as he exited the building. He had been hesitantly returning her advances in his own way, but last week she had been on a mission with Asuma and had come back different, like the world was on her shoulders more. Her face when she dived in the water to save him was desparate and he had been surprised to feel his heart contract at the pain his danger was causing her.

He closed his eyes and channeled the shinobi skills he usually didn't use. He had stretched them when he had Naruto to keep up witht he prankster, but with Naruto gone and Konohamaru and Hanabi distracted by her family problems until recently, he hadn't used them as much. He still remembered the proud look Sandaime held when he refused to become an official jounin, and wouldn't even consider training for an anbu. Sandiame had given him situation Jounin status, but he never used it. A teacher didn't need to, chunin was enough. He didn't think he was anything special, but apparently this was a much debated idea.

She was looking at dango at a stand and debating aloud if she should go dango or ramen. Quietly, he came up behind her and let his chin hover over one of her shoulders and answer her last question.

"Would ramen be more appealing with company?" She whirled to look at him. Her breath caught in her throat. He was here. She had had a crush on Iruka for freakin ever, but Naruto threw a glare at anyone who came within a foot of his sensei. She had patiently waited until he was out of town to test the waters. She had learned that Kakashi had teased Iruka in a similar method, so she had simply started teasing him. Over the last two years that had been enough, but a few monthes ago, when watching Hinata talk about Naruto and watching Iruka with his student, she had started to care more.

The clueless man didn't seem to catch on, but that was okay. it wasn't like she had much to give someone like Iruka. Her job was rediculously dangerous and busy. Her past was full of a big mistake she couldn't live down. To her shame, she hadn't found a way to repent or even save others from its effects.

Than she started hanging more with this bronze man. His easy carefree smile was genuine and his laugh was full. He gripped his life with two hands and wrangled all that he could out of his day. He had protested, blushed and scolded, but he had never told her to go away. Then, on a mission and bit ago she was reminded of the mistake she was still living with. It came back to bite her and she had felt its iron grip on her happiness weaken her determined grip on despair.

Then she saw him. He had been walking to school when they had bumped into each other. She had smiled and nodded in his direction,a brief hello, and then continued on her way. Two steps later she stopped. The panic had edged when he looked at her. The grip of terror had softened when he returned the greeting. She looked at his retreating back, walking slower then it had when they had come upon each other, as if in thought, or waiting for someone. Her teasing hug collided with the gentle man a few moments later ans she felt her soul spread its wings. The reminder was still there, but with him on her side, she felt capable, determined to win.

Here he was, in the middle of the street after she got off work. She could see the bronze laugh lines that made up his young face. He was shy her age only by a few years, being born between large generations for the shinobi of the village, he was one of the few in his class still around. Yet he laughed enough to have laugh lines. His eyes tilted down towards hers as he awaited the answer to his question. It took her a moment to remember said question.

Her seductive smirk spread across her face as Iruka heard her sassy reply that company definitely made ramen the better choice. Inside he was estatic. She pulled him along towards Ichiraku's and she talked about the part of the village she had help rebuild that morning. They laughed as they walked. He couldn't get over how much her face changed when she laughed. It was as if there was a candle on her chin and it was lit as the laugh started, illuminating all the beauty and strength in the face.

They talked their way through a ramen each. Naruto was a favorite topic at this particular lunch. Iruka got the feeling Anko was trying to feel out Naruto, and his relationship with the other shinobi. Iruka was raising to walk her home, or wherever she was heading when it happened.

Anko loved the gentle way her held her hand and pulled out the chair to escort her back to her home. She already knew he trusted her as a fellow shinobi, but to do that and treat her like a woman was unusual. In fact, Ten Ten had already come to her in the last month to talk about this problem. She was just broaching the topic of meeting later that night by the river when her psat mistake came a calling.

She felt the white hot pain erupt from her neck where that bastard had bit her. She knew she didn't scream, but even with her experience she couldn't keep herself from moaning and nearly collapsing. Strong hands kept her upright, but they couldn't sooth away this pain. Whatever Orochimaru was doing, it was sure as hell not good for her.

000

Sakura rushed forward and grabbed Anko as the kunoichi nearly fell into the hospital even with Iruka's help. They had found Kakashi outside trying to figure out what to do with his free few hours. He decided to help them, much to their combined relief. Iruka's ribs were not quite up to carrying a person yet and both he and Anko knew that.

They had barely made it to a room before Anko gave up on holding off screams and they echoed in the room. Tsunade was there in moments, seeing the problem and out again. She knew Kakashi could perform decent release seals, but seals were not his thing. They were Hiashi's however, and she knew the Hyuuga was visiting his nephew and Ten Ten's family. Sakura had put Anko in the room that had been reserved for Naruto and Sasuke not too long ago, it still contained some useful remanents, such as items to deal with a cursed seal from Orochimaru.

Hiashi came in, already preparing himself for a seal. He was familar with the cursed seal, but he had never sealed it personally. He hurried over to Anko, ignoring Kakashi, Sakura and Tsunade. Iruka was hovering on the side, Kakashi holding him back some to give Hiashi some room. Anko had disolved into hissing through her clenched teeth. Hiashi ripped the shirt off the shoulder, bareing the mark to him. The black flaps were already starting to zigzagging across her skin. Hiashi was already setting up a seal, but he was frowning in frustration.

"Anko, you need to pull the chakra back in." She wasn't listening. She probably couldn't even hear him over her pain. She finally brushed Hiashi away, flailing in an effort to expend the adrenaline borne from pain. Neji, who had followed his uncle, pulled Hiashi back before she decked him. Kakashi leaped forward to grab her, but couldn't get close either. Her chakra was humming. Sakura recognized this. She had watched Sasuke go through this. This is what would have happened if Sasuke had fought the mark. She closed her eyes in fear, unable to do anything as she watched the anguish, mentally overlaying another person with a cursed seal. She just couldn't move.

Iruka had a different reaction. While Hiashi had been working he had been frozen, not even fighting Kakashi's hold. He didn't know what was happening, what he could do. He jumped when Hiashi ripped her shirt and he saw the seal. he didn't know what it was. Then Anko had gone crazy. In some part of his mind that belonged to the shinobi heard Hiashi's statement. When she blew Kakashi back, he snapped out of it. Dodging her fist and pushing hard against her chakra, using skills he had deveolped to help scared or injured students, he grabbed her fists, trapping her in his arms.

Her eyes were drawn to the eyes of the person holding her. They met his concerned browned eyes and as if magnetic, couldn't pulled them away. The pain, making her eyes water, seemed to take a back seat as she drew on his strength. Neither were aware as Hiashi continued his efforts to seal the seal. Iruka felt her chakra scrape around him, harsh in its frenzy.

"You need to draw your chakra in." His low baritone caressed her, soothing her stressed thought processes, focusing her energies. She gritted her teeth as she pulled on her chakra, controlling the curse, locking away behind her shields, letting Hiashi seal the remanent of Orochimaru away. His soft voice urged her to be strong and keep going. She grasped him in need, depending on him for an anchor in reality. He answered her need with firm belief in her ability.

Hiashi stepped back as he finished the temporary seal. It wouldn't hold forever, but it would do until they could seal it overall. He stumbled back, letting Kakashi hold him up. A gentle hand on his back he grasped Kakashi's other hand in his, using his friend's strength to make it to the bed. Even upon releasing his hand he was grateful that the hand onhis back stayed put for a bit longer. His tired eyes sought his nephew at the doorway with Sakura and Ino.

The mednin looked pale, not even responding to her best friend as they tried to convince her to sit. Her tearfilled eyes were staring at Anko. He knew she felt strongly for her patients, but he felt that somehow this was something else. Ino and another young woman, Datsuko he thought was her name, were trying to sit her down. Neji was hovering off to one side, unsure what to do, looking between his colleages and his uncle. Hiashi felt for him.

Neji wasn't sure what to do alright. He was slightly stunned. His uncle had just exhibited a powerful seal. He rarely saw his uncle perform any shinobi art outside of the family martial arts. He knew of the seal he performed, though he didn't recognize the seal on Anko. He had found out recently to his surprise that his uncle was a jounin, but it really shouldn't have. His uncle was powerful inside the clan, he didn't simply lose that when he left the clan walls. He simply worked more politics these days.

After realizing that he couldn't help Ino with Sakura, he stepped forward to help Miketsu, who had followed Ino and Datsuko, with Iruka and Anko. Anko had clamed down at this point and was leaning her forehead on Iruka's shoulder. The sensei looked like he wasn't sure whether to be terrified or to be relieved. Neji thought eh would've gone with relieved.

Hiashi watched as Neji joined Tsunade in coaxing the young couple to sit. His eyes strayed to the two un-known newcomers. The young woman by Ino, he had run into briefly but the woman, whose back was to him, he had yet to meet. Or rather, as he found out at she turned, he had yet to re-meet.

"Mikoto?" Kakashi's word drew people's attention as both jounin looked at the woman in amazement. It certainly looked like her, but Mikoto was dead. Hiashi winced as he pulled himself up as Kakashi approached the woman. He wished Gai was present. The hyper jounin was the best support Kakashi had ever had. The woman finally met his eyes as he repeated the dead woman's name. She squinted in confusion, before her eyes widened in realization. She rush Kakashi with a sense of desperate urgency.

"You know me? What about my sons? Do you know who they are?" She was grasping his shoulders, trying to unsuccessfully shake him with each question. Kakashi's brain sounded slightly derailed as he responded.

"S-s-sons?" She shook him again.

"I have two sons. I can picture them. They are mine! Who are they? Where are they? Please! Please tell me!" Her pleading was disolving into tearful begging as she hung from Kakashi's shoulders. Neji and Datsuko came forward with gentle hands, but she ignored them. Neji finally turned to Kakashi.

"You know who she is?" He was hopeful. Ino and Sakura had been working with this woman for a while and since she had found out she had children yesterday, she had grown even more desperate.

Kakashi turned away from the woman. Hiashi moved to walk to him, but he simply walked to the bedside drawer. Hiashi remembered, this had been Sasuke's room. Kakashi reached inside the drawer and withdrew a picture of Sasuke when he was no older that six. sasuke and his family before the massacre.

He handed the picture to the wooman silently. She looked at him in confusion before looking down at the picture. Her fingers caressed the boys, a few years older then the single memory Ino had teased forward. She was crying as she looked at the picture.

"My boys. These are my boys. This is me. Where are they? Please, where are my sons?" She looked back at Kakashi. His mask had returned as he stared at the woman dispassionately. Hiashi recognized this as his shield for the grief he was feeling. He turned to Tsunade, who had missed this particular family getting married and being born, so didn't recognize the name.

"This is Uchiha Mikoto, mother of Uchiha Itachi and Uchiha Sasuke."

000

Naruto was meditating. he had been doing that for a while. It had changed form a simple relaxation time to a practice in concentration when first Sakura's then Neji's mind did a disturbing tilt. he had been soothing Sakura was he listened to her inner dialogue about the pain sasuke could have felt. He had been aware after the fact of the pain and prescence of the curse seal when he fought Sasuke, but he hadn't ever wanted to entertain the vision of what it could do to him.

Sakura, the one in the group to feel things more deeply, felt this pain for him now and it was overwhelming her. Only saskue's name had brought her out of it. Naruto felt his own insides freeze at the pronouncement that Sasuke's mother was alive. What it would have meant to the boy was undescribable. And yet, if Kakashi was to be believed, here the woman was, dead nearly ten years, back from the dead. This was testing his ability with his bonds.

Over the past weeks, he had had regular contact with Hinata, pleased Yuuki had arrived safely and enjoyed watching as the Heiress got the best of her clan's council one by one. Neji, he hadn't "spoken" to as often, but he had contacted him here and there. He could feel a lingering anger in Neji that he couldn't identify and hadn't asked about yet. It scared him. He remembered the Neji he had fought in the tournament, it wasn't a pretty memory.

000

Tsunade let out a whoosh of breath as she sat in her chair. She really should have gotten to Ino and Sakura earlier. Miketsu was really Mikoto. Dotsuko was Namikaze Nijikou's daughter. The girl had been pregnant and noone had known. The Namikaze had been massacred when Naruto was two, four years before the Uchiha massacre. But if Mikoto had survived somehow then Nijikou's daughter could have as well. Of course, she hadn't known that the girl had had a daughter.

She turned her attention to the two standing in front of her. Kiryu Moto and Kiryu Hiru were visiting from Suna to discuss the relations between the villages.

000

Hinata listened with fascination as Neji explained who Miketsu was. Apparently, Miketsu was Mikoto, Sasuke's mother, whom everyone thought had died in te massacre ten years earlier. And Datsuko was part of the Namikaze clan, whom Hinata knew had been massacred four years before that. The Hyuuga clan was the only of the strong three clans left in Konoha. She shook her head in amazement as Neji told her that with Sakura fainting at Kakashi's pronouncement, they had postponed any further discussion until the following day. What a mess.

Hinata looked out the window as she thought.

"Itoko, there is also something wrong with Yuuki." She had slept most of the afternoon after picking up Shino, but the little time she had spent awake and with Yuuki she had noticed the girl showing an extreme look of longing at odd times. The quiet was more intorspective than relaxed and Hinata couldn't place why. She gently petted Hoshi as she explained this to her cousin.

Her relationship with her cousin was one of the most important part of her life right now. he held to together with Naruto gone and her father preoccupied. before he had been council, but now he was becoming a much needed confidant in a way that Naruto or her father would probably never be. She didn't know how she could ever repay the trust and responsibility he was shouldering for her.

She smield as he wished her a pleasant sleep before leaving to track down Hanabi and make sure the little rascal and her friends were getting to sleep. She had invited Konohamaru, Moegi, and Udon over for a few days. She claimed it was for fun, Hinata believed she meant mischeif, but had agreed to take the weight off of Iruka. Still the four little beasts needed there sleep. She smiled as she lay back and reached out to Naruto.

000

Kakashi stood sadly on his perch on the Yondiame's head petting his cat, not surprised when Gai appeared behind him.

"Hiashi sent you?" Gai smiled as he shook his head.

"My youthful student passed along the story." He sat, feet dangling off the edge. "You okay?" He rarely asked that of the guarded anbu turned jounin. Kakashi shielded himself by pretending to not have emotions. One doesn't ask someone who has no emotions if they're okay. The fact that he had brought Tsume out of the house, that the cat had let him, was significant.

"She didn't remember." Gai didn't respond, knowing he would continue easiest without input. "Itachi idolized her. I could never believe that he killed his mother any more then I can believe he'll fight his brother to Sasuke's death. Here is another memory of Itachi before he left." Another memory of Sasuke and my failure went unsaid. Gai nodded.

"Also, her companion was a Namikaze was she not? Niji-chan was-" Kakashi turned to him.

"I know!" He turned away, fists clenched in grief. "I know" Gai reguarded him as he tried to calm down. He knew the thought, or rather the person Kakashi was thinking of to do so.

"I miss her." Kakashi let his hands relax at the memory of his lover. He looked across the village in despair.

"I can't miss her. That would prove she was gone."

000

Naruto stood near his aunt as the campfire roared and they waited. It was a beautiful night, stars and moon shining brightly over the group. She stepped forward on the platform to speak to them.

"You have asked me to speak here tonight of love. Tonight we honor our feelings towards the ones whom we bind our destiny. Whether they are near or far, alive or dead, happy or sad we give our love and our future and our past to them. I'll start out the night with a small song for lovers far away. As many of you know, mine is quite far away tonight. I wish to give him strength.

"I see the moon
And the moon sees me
The moon see the one
I want to see
So God bless the Moon
And God bless me
Please God bless the one that I want to see

Naruto closed his eyes, letting Hinata in, letting her share this. He loved her. He didn't know how he knew or when, but he loved her. He could feel the chakra of the others similarily flowing out, as if seeking their own love.

"I see the stars shining above
They see the one that I love
Shine for love
And shine for me
Please shine for the one that I want to see

Naruto opening his eyes to see several couple holding each other close. All the children had been sent to bed earlier. There were several who were holding some trinket close, crying silently as they raised their eyes to the heavens, as Haruka was doing, emotionally calling for their mate to return to them for even one brief moment.

"So I see the moon
And the moon sees me
The moon sees the one
That I want to see
So God bless the moon
For them and me
And God bless the love I hold for thee

There was a gentle silence. The crackle of the fire puttered against the trees and the wind. Naruto felt his connection wth Hinata all the stronger as he held his aunts hand and she let her tears fall.

"I love my mate." This phrase seemed to be that key for everyone as people began to say or whisper the name of the one they were thinking of. He heard Haruka whisper a name as she pulled him closer. He looked at the fire and sent all his feeling to his mate.

"Hina-chan"

Haruka smiled waterly at her nephew before releasing him and standing forward again.

"As is tradition we start with a slow song and a faster song. Before turning the floor over to the romantic singers for the night. My second song is for all you lovers that thought it as impossible." Naruto looked at her in interest as he took his place to dance without his mate.

At the campfires where there as dancing, you could dance with your mate or without, but they were signicantly different dances. The singer reproduced many different sounds that had Naruto dancing freely, wishing his mate was present. He could feel her exhaustion from here so he said she could listen to one more, but then he would let her sleep.

(Still the One by Shania Twain)

"When I first saw you, I saw love.
And the first time you touched me, I felt love.
And after all this time, you're still the one I love.

Naruto smiled as he brought his birthday to mind. He still didn't know how she had managed it. He had actually felt her there with him.

Haruka liked this song. Her father had been against her mate from the get go. Not that it had been an amazingly romantic start.

"Looks like we made it
Look how far we've come my baby
We mighta took the long way
We knew we'd get there someday

-Flashback-
Haruka jumped and dodged as the new genin of her brother's tried to capture them. This was supposed to be an exercise in teamwork, but she didn't think the genin were getting it.

"Youkai No Ami Osaete!" nope not getting it. She dodged the net the silver haired genin had tossed her way. To be fair they were only a few years younger then her, but she felt as if she had never been this reckless. She dodged another of the strange net. She had never heard of it before, but her brother had said that this boy invented many of his own jutsu. The fourth one finally connected.

She screamed as her chakra bit into her muscles, rejecting all the chakra Byaka had been merging with her since birth. She was still twitching as they release the jutsu.

"They said, 'I bet they'll never make it'
But just look at us holding on
We're still together still going strong

The next time they met was the day he lost his best friend, if you could call him that. The Uchiha had given the boy a great gift and lost his life in the same day and it was Haruka's job to get him home. His silence bothered her. They hadn't talked at all in the last year and a half as he shot through the ranks to jounin. He was sitting up in his hospital bed after the mission, staring out the window. She almost didn't think he was going to talk, but he proved her wrong.

"Youkai No Ami Osaete" She froze. He had invented that awful technique and someone had found out. It had been repeated and now it was known in the underworld as a way to capture and torture a jinchuuriki. She was set to exit the room as he spoke. Her back was to him so she didn't see his expression, or if he was even looking at her instead of his previous focus.

"I apologize" She turned now to meet his nearly dead eyes. She had heard those words before, but never had they been meant from such a painful event. She didn't known what to day.

"(You're still the one)
You're still the one I run to
The one that I belong to
You're the one I want for life
(You're still the one)
You're still the one that I love
The only one I dream of
You're still the one I kiss good night

She landed on the Sandiame's head only to put her shields up when she spotted a figure already on the cliff. It was the silver-haired jounin that she had been working with. He was gorgeous, and out of her league. He was also hurting. She approached and sat next to him. He looked at her, she as surprised to find his new eye crying. She reached out to him.

Probaby for the first time in either of their lives he reached back.

"Ain't nothin' better
We beat the odds together
I'm glad we didn't listen
Look at what we would be missin'

They were coing home from the mission, filled with adrenaline of a successful mission. She was riding the feeling before she found everyone else had gone ahead. Everyone except the most interesting specimen of male known to that jinchuuriki. She shreaked in laughter as he tackled her into the lake beneath them. They trusted their teammates to turn in their report.

"(You're still the one)
You're still the one I run to
The one that I belong to
You're the one I want for life
(You're still the one)
You're still the one that I love
The only one I dream of
You're still the one I kiss good night

"They said, 'I bet they'll never make it'
But just look at us holding on
We're still together still going strong

Her nephew was going to be born soon. She sat on the side of the lake, her lover stretched out next to her, both simply enjoying the stars.

"Kushina is looking forward to having a son." Kakashi sat up smiling gently at her excitment. An expression he only showed two people. He nuzzled her under her ear.

"Shall we make one?" Haruka looked at him in surprise. He knew the chance of convincing her father was minimal. He was asking anyway.

She leaped at him in joy.

-end flashback-

"(You're still the one)
You're still the one I run to
The one that I belong to
You're the one I want for life
(You're still the one)
You're still the one that I love
The only one I dream of
You're still the one I kiss good night

Haruka smiled at Naruto as he communed with his mate. She wished she could do that right now. She could imagine his face, his hair, his presence. Gods, she missed her mate.

I'm so glad we made it
Look how far we've come my baby

Haruka looked at the sky as she walked out of the campfire circle as the normal band picked up romantic songs for the young. She looked up in the sky as she sat with her drink on the side of the cliff.

Ever has it been that
Love knows not its own depth
Until the hour of Separation
Nor its own Height
'til the hour of reunion


Here it is. Kakashi's cat is mentioned in found family, he doesn't know Haruka is back. No one in the village who knew her back then knows for sure. Also the person who attacked the village last chapter was Isonade, the third tailed bijuu. They are listed and discussed in length in 'Trust is earned not given away'

One more chapter in this story i think. it'll be a bit cuz I'm moving and i won't have internet for a while. If there are any characters you want to hear more about please please let me know. I brought some of the lesser seen characters forward here with Iruka and Anko. Oh and what do you guys think of Mikoto? let me know